Combine harvester sales can be linked to total arable area, the changes in the cropping patterns, the number of holdings (and the changes in farm size), farmersâ incomes and expected priorities in their investment decisions. At New Holland we have developed several scenario's to predict the impact of the set-aside policy in agriculture. We also developed three models to forecast in which direction the industry might restructure. The scenario analysis proved to be a valuable tool to grasp the impact of E. C. policy decisions on the farm machinery industry. Decisions on production capacity and the location of manufacturing plants can be taken with more confidence.
This paper employs a business-to-business relationship marketing perspective to investigating and quantifying the relationship between Australian grain growers and an agribusiness food processing firm. The next section provides the conceptual framework on strategic networks and business-to-business relationships; section 3 outlines the methodology; section 4 summarises the main results; and section 5 discusses the implications of the results and directions for further research.
This article examines the organization of European food industry during a time of significant changes in their operating environment. The creation of common European markets, changes in agricultural policy, changing customer preferences together with technological development have an impact on the organization of the food industry. A significant phenomenon in the development of the structure of the food industry has been vertical integration. Three categories of factors influencing the organizational structure are considered; institutional factors, production costs, and transaction costs. Due to the fact that a major part of the European food processing industry is run by agricultural cooperatives, special emphasis is given to these organizations.
Over the past twenty years there appears in Europe an increase in the demand of by-products and a blockage of the fresh consumer market, decisively contributing to the existence of excess supply in some varieties, when there is overproduction in a season, and the oversupply of the market is increased, provoking a prices drop. The cost of raw material in Spain is high and the industry is basically supplied from collecting raw material in a marginal form, under adverse climatical situations of overproduction, or through subsidies. After a first reference to the juice industry in the world, the Spanish reality is set out in the subjects concerning the structural characteristics, varietal composition, EEC policy and production costs. The major conclusion is the need for setting up the development of the industry on basis different from the current, with plannings in the supply of raw material, withdrawing from the fresh supply the inferior qualities, a measure that would be viable through interprofessional agreements, or by cooperative system. Although the world market of concentrated juices is very competitive in favour of the countries that dominate it, the Spanish citriculture should not have renounced to the extension of the industry in view of the blockage of the fresh market, and the increase of juice consumed. With the purpose of optimizing the economical result of the fresh market shipments, an optimization model of the supply is presented, through a function of global demand set out in weeks, which makes it possible to quantify the amounts and qualities that must be withdrawn from the market to be destined for the processing industry. Two criteria have been considered for this: maintenance of price levels, and of weekly incomes. The characteristics of the functions utilized have allowed to establish substitutions between amounts and quality levels, maintaining unchanged the prices or the incomes.
This paper outlines a regional analysis of the off-patent manufacture of agrochemicals in Europe, the Far East and Latin America. The volumes of sales turnover produced by this manufacturing sector are identified, and the range of chemical types being produced. Individual examples are given to highlight the effect that this additional production base can have on supply and pricing, as well as an indication of the range of actives still in short-term development.
This paper examines the impact of the GATT agreement and concludes that its direct impact will be minimal. More important is the establishment of a framework that will serve as a basis for GATT Mark II for agriculture from 2003. The current GATT will be used more as a lever to achieve changes to the current, and recently reformed, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The main driver of future political change will be the EC farm budget for which a homing crisis beckons, in the arable sector the main policy instruments of set-aside, direct aid and declining intervention and export restitution, will remain. The only way to overcome the budget problem will be to increase set-aside, reduce compensation payments or do both. However such demands by the EC Commission will be âbought off by a substantial increase in support for industrial crop use. The overall impact on the agricultural industry will be an acceleration of farm structure change with concentration into fewer larger units to realise the savings in fixed costs. The farm input markets will decline and become even more aggressive, yet at the same time more 'accessible' for those who want to take innovative approaches to the distribution challenge. Despite the policy interventions there will be a surviving EC agriculture at the end of the decade, albeit as a 'leaner meaner machine'. Those who can bring new technology to the market and use the very best in marketing will have an exciting future.
UIPP, the french national agrochemical association launched in 1993 a communication campaign on the theme "When you protect plants, you also protect humans". This campaign was on TV last summer and in the magazines during the autumn. The objective was to sensitize the public to the necessity of protecting plants to get safe and various food. The first results are very positive.
Whether one fears future farm closings due to a lack of successors or expressly advocates agricultural structural changes, the manner in which these changes can be expected to take place is of interest to agricultural policy. For this reason, a method was used here to study structural changes which, based on agricultural surveys, allows conclusions to be drawn about the frequencies of staying in an employment status, exits from farm-employment and occupational mobility of people involved in farm occupations. These frequency tables are used to make projections about the number of farms in the area of the former Federal Republic of Germany. On the basis of these projections, an increasing decline of the number of farms, exceeding the expectations of only a few years ago, is indicated. In addition, the significance of multi-job-holding will presumably increase as a consequence of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union. The concern that a lack of successors could threaten agricultural land use seems however unfounded, because it seems admissible to assume that people who are not currently among the potential farm successors would take over existing farms or start new farms if accelerated structural change would cause agriculture to become more competitive in the future.
This paper will identify possible environmental policies aiming to reduce agricultural pollution and how they will affect farming decisions. Specifically, emphasis will be put on the impacts of those policies in combination with the CAP-reform on the way farmers will use production inputs induced by different incentives schemes. Although these questions are rather political, they do influence both the forward and backward economic linkages of the agricultural activities. Input industries must be aware not only of the policies, but need to trace how farmers change their behaviour accordingly. Empirical results will be used to illustrate how different policies shift the production systems and how these ultimately affect input use. In particular, preliminary results obtained from research carried out in Spain and in France will be posed as examples of those trends. The paper finishes with a set of recommendations extensive to the input industries operating in the newly regulated agriculture.
In 1993 B.V.A. and A.I.G.C. (Agro Industries et Grandes Cultures) pooled their experiences to offer their clients an economic observation during the 1st year of the CAP Reform. B.V.A. survey was conducted in 7 European countries. The sample was representative of the hectares of arable land and covered 86 % of the arable land of these countries. 2000 farmers were surveyed in order to collect details about the area of each crop they had sown or were going to grow and the amount of inputs they were going to apply on their main crops. The data about the crop rotation enabled B.V.A. to forecast the evolution of European areas for the different crops. From this sample, we selected some groups of farms very similar to the farms included the A.I.G.C. accounts panel.Using the data of the accounts stored by A.I.G.C., the data of B.V.A. survey and its investigation on the probable prices of the 1992/1993 season, A.I.G.C. drew up models of 1993 farm accounts in different regions of Europe. This new forecasting tool enabled 1993 crop rotation to be accurately assessed and the real economic consequences of the CAP Reforms derived from this simulation model.
In the following it will be analysed in how far these and other instruments were accepted by the farmers up to now, initiated target-orientated processes and produced purposeful results. With this it is necessary to differentiate the mechanisms of regulation, in the broader sense the possibilities of reaction, too, according to the ones which are affected by degree of choice in this and the monetary attractiveness.
The aim of this paper is to illustrate how a traditionally very production oriented area like agriculture can become more market oriented, and how research can be an important help in decision making as well as an important argument in convincing different parties that a new track must be chosen. The paper is divided in two parts. The first part presents some research findings that have been important in the developement of the business idea. The second part of the paper present how the strategy of LRF has changed since the first survey and how marketing and communication has been used to further the new strategy. Two years after this initial study, the Federation of Swedish Farmers changed track. Instead of the traditional farmers union resistance to all proposals of cuts in agricultural subsidies, a more market and consumer oriented strategy was adopted. This did not mean a total capitulation in any way, but was a real breaktrough for a new way of thinking. Hand in hand with this major policy-change went image campaigns, ambitious environmental programs and many other things. Business Ecology is about applying ecology to business in a profitable way. How traditional marketing has been applied in communicating the new message from the farmers to the consumers is described.